Vista and XP dual boot

[Starrx05]

I have a Lenovo w/ Vista Busines installed but it's so loaded with trialware so I plan to wipe it out and use my own CD. I also want to put on XP. The HD is 200GB so should be big enough. My question is which OS should I install first. Also, if you have a 3000N Lenovo series, which software is really needed after you install all drivers? I heard about a software called VistaBoot. Do I really need it? Thanks for all inputs.

 

[JustaGeek]

Older OS first, e.g. XP.

You don't need Vista Boot - Vista Boot Loader will be installed automatically when you install Vista.

Then you can use EasyBCD to change the settings.
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Good luck!

 

[soydios]

install XP first. if you install XP after Vista it screws up the boot table. I know, it took me two days to figure out how to get my system back after trying that.

 

[NoelS]

Starrx,

Be sure you have XP drivers for the Lenova first, if Lenova will provide them for your particular machine. I tried to do that for a Sony I had earlier and they wouldn't provide drivers for XP, so I had to stick with Vista...

And I second (and third) JustaGeek and soydios: install (and test) XP first.

Noel

 

[Starrx05]

Thanks for all replies.

Luckily, my Lenovo model was sold with either XP or Vista so they have drivers for XP online. I've divided my HD into 2 partitions, C & D. So XP will go first to C: then Vista to D: later. Should I make a small E: partition for data?

If you already have Vista on another machine and want to add XP, which is easy way to recover the Vista boot loader? Removing Vista, install XP then reload Vista w/ all original programs would take too much time. Can I use some prog to make a backup image of Vista, wipe it out, divide the HD, load XP into D: then load the Vista image back to C:?? Will the 1st OS have to go into first partition always?